1. Field of Invention
The present invention relates generally to the field of electronic commerce. More specifically, the present invention is related to a system and a method for enhancing buyer's performance in electronic commerce.
2. Discussion of Prior Art
Commerce includes goods, services, financial instruments such as mortgages, securities, tickets, travel fares and accommodation, and more. FIG. 1 illustrates various methods of setting transaction prices 100 in electronic commerce, some of which are detailed below:                a) Posted prices 102: Seller posts all prices of item(s) or service(s) the seller provides, and it is up to the buyer to decide whether they like to pay such prices.        b) Quoted prices 104: Based on some information the seller has about the buyer, the seller quotes a personalized price to the buyer. Every seller that requires registration before releasing prices can “quote” rather than “post” a price.        c) Bid prices 106: Buyer commits to the seller to pay a price the buyer chooses.        d) Auctions and reverse auctions 108: Buyers compete on items for sale or sellers compete for supplying wanted items.        
Naturally, sellers are better positioned to take advantage of the new opportunities offered by electronic commerce. Sellers maintain databases for tracking their sales so they can easily collect and process information about buyers and create buyer profiles. This allows the sellers to quote different prices to different customers and increase their profits. Without appropriate tools, buyers cannot do an extensive search for comparing prices, so they end up paying more than the minimum available price. For example, the process of finding the least expensive airfare is sophisticated enough to convince the buyers that they are getting the lowest fares available. The present invention overcomes these shortcomings and enhances buyers performance in such electronic commerce situations.
The following references describe prior art in the field of improving network commerce in general. All the prior art describing commercial transactions in a network (some of which are described below) are very similar to FIG. 1, but none relate to the present invention's method and system for enhancing buyers performance in electronic commerce.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,255,184 provides for an airline seat inventory control method and apparatus for computerized airline reservation systems. Described is an optimal reservation control using network-wide booking limits which takes into account the probabilistic nature of the demand.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,848,139 discloses a telecommunication traffic pricing control system wherein a price controller implements a pricing strategy that is dependent on past changes in telecommunications traffic volume on the trunk group and past changes in price of delay tolerant calls, and preferably implements a set of fuzzy logic rules.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,974,308 teaches a cellular phone system that optimizes user demand by charging system subscribers according to a variable charge rate that is based on the price elasticity of subscribers. Service providers continuously determine a charge rate that can be tailored to a specific subscriber category according to a number of variables which optimizes the individual cell capacity and the overall system capacity.
World Patent No. WO 98/53415 provides a method for incorporating psychological effects such as price thresholds and promotional activity into a demand model. First, the original demand model is modified to include a mechanism to convert actual prices into perceived prices, thus causing the demand model to predict higher demand for certain prices. Then, the user modifies the function to convert from real prices to perceived prices. This modified demand function is then fitted to a sales history to yield the parameters appropriate to its particular form.
There also exist website services that search the web on behalf of the user to find sites offering the best deals on products a buyer is interested in purchasing. However, these website services fall short of bargaining on behalf of the prospective buyer.
In all the above described systems there is no mention of enhancing buyers performance in an electronic commerce scenario. Present commercial transactions are limited by sellers being better positioned to take advantage of new opportunities offered by electronic commerce. Whatever the precise merits, features and advantages of the above cited references, none of them achieve or fulfill the purposes of the present invention. The current invention puts the buyer's interests ahead of the sellers and provides for an enhanced buyer performance system in an electronic commerce situation. These and other objects are achieved by the detailed description that follows.